Usability – designing for people

Should UK businesses operate their Web sites from a .com or .co.uk domain?

I often get asked this question, so here’s an answer:

Although .com officially means global ‘commercial’, many UK users perceive .com to mean US/American or more specifically, NOT domestic/UK.

This becomes an issue when users are scanning through lists of Web addresses or search results – .coms can be dismissed immediately if users are looking for a home-based business. In this respect, .co.uk has a more comfortable and trustworthy feel to it.

So, for a genuinely global business, .com is the boss, although localised domains should still be used.

For predominently UK-oriented businesses, .co.uk is the most appropriate choice and can actually enhance your credibility on-line.

Why do people leave their £20,000 (or more) car out on the driveway, and lock up their junk in the garage? It is after all, slightly inconvenient to open the garage door – unless it is electrically operated – and drive in, even if it wasn’t full of junk.

Well, it makes sense because these days, cars are more durable – they don’t rust so easily, generally don’t leak when it rains, they start when it’s cold and wet and cannot be stolen in ten seconds with little more than a coat hanger. There was a time when an ungaraged car would rot, leak and in winter, might not start.

So, these days most people don’t really need a garage to store their car in, even if most property buyers would consider it a bonus. Is this why newbuild property developers still add garages, and even worse, make it a prominent architectural feature? Do you live in a property which looks like a garage with a house attached?

What people really need is storage. Not shelves in a garage, but properly designed and integrated storage. Why doesn’t this happen?

The best and most usable web sites are far likely to be the most successful. In a similar way to Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution through natural selection, the best web sites will succeed by the social and economic concept, survival of the fittest.

So what does this mean to people who design and produce web sites? Well, in an environment where users have a choice – with click and go convenience – people will migrate to the easiest, most usable sites, while the frustrating and confusing ones fall by the wayside.

Of course, there are other factors: successful sites need to be aesthetically pleasing as well and something which combines usability with great concept, unique design and on-line marketing is really going to fly.

Don’t underestimate the power – and the danger – of usability. It’s powerful because it really can be a driver for success; it’s dangerous because when something is wrong and you don’t know about it, you will be turning a lot of people away from your web site.